CVE-2018-12457 in expressCart
Summary
by MITRE
expressCart before 1.1.6 allows remote attackers to create an admin user via a /admin/setup Referer header.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/27/2023
The vulnerability described in CVE-2018-12457 affects expressCart versions prior to 1.1.6 and represents a critical authentication bypass flaw that enables remote attackers to escalate privileges by creating administrative user accounts. This vulnerability specifically leverages the application's handling of the Referer header during the administrative setup process, allowing unauthorized users to bypass normal authentication mechanisms and gain full administrative control over the affected system. The flaw exists in the web application's security model where the system fails to properly validate the origin of requests during the setup phase, creating an exploitable path for malicious actors to inject administrative credentials into the system.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper input validation and insufficient access control mechanisms within the expressCart application's administrative setup endpoint. When attackers send a specially crafted request to the /admin/setup endpoint with a manipulated Referer header, the application incorrectly interprets this as a legitimate administrative setup request. This misconfiguration allows the system to process user creation requests without proper authentication verification, effectively enabling anyone with network access to the application to create administrative accounts. The vulnerability is classified as a weakness in authentication mechanisms and can be mapped to CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication issues. The flaw demonstrates a lack of proper request origin validation and insufficient privilege escalation controls that should be enforced during critical system configuration processes.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and potentially devastating for organizations using affected expressCart installations. Successful exploitation allows attackers to gain full administrative privileges, enabling them to modify all system configurations, access sensitive user data, manipulate content, and potentially establish persistent backdoors within the application. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors can exploit this vulnerability from anywhere on the internet without requiring physical access or prior credentials. This creates a significant risk for e-commerce platforms and web applications that rely on expressCart for their operations, as the vulnerability could lead to complete system compromise, data breaches, and unauthorized financial transactions. The attack vector aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts usage, and T1543 which covers create or modify system process, as the attacker can establish persistent administrative access through this vulnerability.
Organizations should immediately implement multiple layers of mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability. The primary and most critical step is to upgrade to expressCart version 1.1.6 or later, which contains the necessary patches to fix the Referer header validation issue. Additionally, network-level protections should be implemented including firewall rules that restrict access to administrative endpoints to trusted IP addresses only, and web application firewalls that can detect and block malicious Referer header patterns. The application should also be configured to enforce strict input validation on all headers and implement proper rate limiting to prevent automated exploitation attempts. Security monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual administrative account creation patterns and unauthorized access attempts to setup endpoints. Organizations should also consider implementing additional authentication controls such as two-factor authentication for administrative accounts and regular security audits of the application's configuration to ensure that similar vulnerabilities are not present in other parts of the system. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing to verify that the patch has been successfully applied and that no other authentication bypass vulnerabilities exist within the application's codebase.